Mental Health and Community

Running head: HEALTH AND WELLBEING 1
Mental Health and Community
Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
An overview of the initiative, why it is necessary and what it hopes to achieve............................3
The role of government and Non-government agencies in addressing mental health in.................6
Australia...........................................................................................................................................6
The value of engaging community in mental health initiatives like Mental Health Week.............7
The role and impact of the media and social media in mental health promotion............................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Mental Health and Community
Introduction.
Mental health is a term used to described as the condition of an individual’s emotions,
psychology and social life. This can then affects how the individual thinks, feels and acts in
everyday life and also how they handle situations of stress, how to relate with other people and
what decisions they make. In Australia, mental illness cases is a significant number as is in other
developed countries who face these situations as much. According to the National Survey of
Mental Health and Wellbeing, one in every five people aged between 16 and 85 experience cases
of mental illness and their symptoms once or more times in their lives. These mental health
issues cause a lot of challenges to the individuals affected and those around them and therefore
the Government of Australia has recognised this and they have come up with initiatives to deal
with this issue of mental health for its citizens (Bryant, Garnham, Tedmanson, & Diamandi,
2018). This essay will look at the annual Mental Health Week in Australia, its importance, the
role the Government and NGOs play in the fight against mental health issues, why it is important
to have community engagement in this fight and the role the media plays in this fight for mental
health.
An overview of the initiative, why it is necessary and what it hopes to achieve.
In Australia, the government is dedicated to ensuring they provide services dedicated to
monitoring the mental health of its citizens since statistics show that one in every five
Australians suffers from symptoms of mental illness yearly. One initiative that the country holds
yearly is the mental health week which happens in October in line with the World Mental Health
Day on 10thOctober and it is held across all Australian territories (Health.gov.au., 2019). The
theme for mental health week held in 2017 was “Do You See What I See?” and the campaign

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was aimed at questioning a number of stereotypes and views on mental illness held by people in
society. Therefore, they achieved this objective by encouraging Australians to start perceiving
mental illness and mental health in a better light.
The campaign was started since they saw the need to ensure there is a reduction of stigma
so that people can have the courage to seek help when they experience symptoms of mental
illness. Also in addition to this theme, for the 2017 World Mental Health Day people were
encouraged to make a pledge called #MentalHealthPromise whose aim was to reduce the stigma
people have against mental illness (Bryant, Garnham, Tedmanson, & Diamandi, 2018).. Some of
the promises that people made were to ensure they talk to their families and inform them that
they were there when anyone needed someone to listen and finally they would check in on their
friends and provide support where necessary. As for 2019, the theme for the World Mental
Health Day to be held in October focuses on suicide prevention. This is necessary since yearly,
approximately 800,000 people take their lives and a higher number attempt to do it. Since suicide
affects those around the person who has lost their lives it is important to address this issue.
Statistics show that it is the second highest cause of death among people aged between 15 and 29
years around the world (Health.gov.au., 2019).
Mental Health Week in Australia is quite important for citizens for a variety of reasons.
thanks to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and other stakeholders this yearly
campaign is successful in its aim to create mental health awareness. First, it allows for the stigma
against mental illness to be shattered in the public sphere. Mental health is one of the issues that
most Australians have a bias for and thus have a stigma against and hence people who have
mental health issues. Providing information on mental health shatters stigma against it. Next, it
impacts much more people than you would think. People who get touched by the awareness